Easter at the White House

by Patricia Reilly

on 04/02/13 at 05:00 PM

Epicurious has had a seat at the table at numerous White House events over the past year or so, most notably the Kids' State Dinner in August 2012. Led by editor-in-chief Tanya Steel, we continue to be a partner with First Lady Michelle Obama in Let's Move! and other important initiatives championing healthy eating for young people, including the recently created MyPlate Pinterest board. So it was a treat to be a part of yesterday's Easter festivities on the White House South Lawn, where the President and First Family hosted the 135th annual Easter Egg Roll.

This year's theme--"Be Healthy, Be Active, Be You"--had Let's Move! written all over it, and indeed the day began with Zumba instructors motivating a groggy crowd waiting on the Ellipse. Once inside, the festivities were as much about healthy eating and exercise as they were about Easter. In addition to the traditional Egg Roll on the upper lawn and egg crafts down below, there was yoga, basketball on the President's court, tumblers in action, Washington state apples to eat, the White House beekeeper to meet, the vegetable garden to admire, and a lively roster of activities hosted by the White House chefs. My personal favorite moment, pictured above: White House executive pastry chef Bill Yosses making hummus/humus jokes as he and executive chef Cristeta Comerford led pint-size volunteers in "planting" an edible garden of carrots, broccoli, and tomatoes in hummus-and-pumpernickel-crumb soil.

Feeling energized, I headed to the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History to explore the new exhibit FOOD: Transforming the American Table 1950-2000. It's a thematic rather than chronological display and covers industrial and agricultural innovations and social trends, the wine industry and Prohibition, the "'Good Food' Movement" (America's adulation of French and Italian foodways, a growing sophistication in American tastes and cooking as represented by an issue of our sibling publication Gourmet), and more. Inevitably, space and scope are limited, sometimes disappointingly so.

That said, the exhibit draws crowds and seems to hold people's interest, not least with Julia Child's reinstalled kitchen (much more viewer-friendly in its current spot). Another hit is the long dining-type table in the center of the room. There, people paid a lot of attention to perusing and comparing an array of schema depicting what represents a healthy diet: the Basic 7 food groups of 1945, the carbs-heavy 1992 USDA food pyramid, a Mediterranean food pyramid circa 1994 (red meat "a few times a month"), a Japanese diet graphic from 2005, an American Older Adults diet from 2007, and of course, at the head of the table, the current MyPlate.

Like Michelle Obama's Let's Move!, this communal table is intended to be a catalyst, or at minimum a conversation-starter among friends and families. In my brief observation, it seems to be working--and not just because it allows visitors to sit down for a while.